Legal Aid offers assistance to low-income Iowans

Agency closed 16K cases, helped nearly 38K people in '05

Most people find life is stressful enough, even when things are going well. Many of us have no emotional or financial reserves to help get by when adversity strikes. For some, especially low-income families, even a short-term loss or reduction of income can lead to a threat of eviction or utility shut off. Iowa Legal Aid provides critical legal assistance to low-income Iowans who have nowhere else to turn.

In the past year in Johnson County, we helped a single parent with severe health issues receive a hardship waiver to avoid garnishment of her meager wages. We helped a women and her child escape a domestic violence situation and move on without fear. We helped a grandmother caring for her grandkids protect her home from the parent involved in criminal activity. We helped a client receive disability and veteran's benefits.

Sometimes we help establish rights in cases that have an impact beyond the benefit to the individual client. The Iowa City office handled an appeal to the Iowa Supreme Court for a client who wanted to continue to have a relationship with her young child, even though the father wanted his new wife to adopt the child instead. The court ruled that there was a constitutional right to an attorney in a "private" lawsuit to terminate parental rights. As a result of this case, no Iowa parent should face the loss of contact with her or his own child simply because the parent cannot afford an attorney.

Iowa Legal Aid and volunteer attorneys help the legal system work. In 2005, we closed more than 16,000 cases that helped more than 37,500 Iowans in all 99 counties. More than 20 percent of the clients served were senior citizens. More than 70 percent of the cases involved women as the primary client, and 47 percent of the cases affected children.

One client wrote, "I do not know what I would have done without the help of Iowa Legal Aid and the Volunteer Lawyers Project, ... I feel better knowing people such as yourselves are willing to help people like me, who would otherwise have to remain in terrible situations if we could not afford to retain a lawyer to resolve it legally."

As always, we are working diligently to adapt to the changing demographics and needs of low-income Iowans: The Hotline for Older Iowans (1-800-992-8161) helps meet the needs of Iowa's growing population of people older than 60; the Spanish Intake Unit (1-800-272-0008) helps serve the growing number of Latino immigrants; and the Iowa Returning Veterans Project (1-800-992-8161) helps veterans and their families.

The Low-Income Taxpayer Clinic helps educate low-income people, for whom English is a second language, about their tax rights and responsibilities, and it assists low-income taxpayers who have a tax controversy.